GALA Meeting, 100in1 Day Hamilton, and Trailhead Ontario Community Day

On Saturday (June 6), I headed out to a branch of the Hamilton Public Library down Barton Street East to attend the monthly Gibson and Landsdale Area (GALA) Meeting to see what's being planned for the area and to promote the project to get some more publicity. They were busy planning many great things for the community such as the Barton Street Festival, Pan-Am BBQ, and the Beautiful Alleys Clean-up. Brenda Duke (GALA co-treasurer) later offered to include our poster in the July/August community paper (The Herald), so hopefully requests for street trees continue to be fly in once our project is over!

After the GALA meeting, I headed over to Powell Park to meet volunteer Maine Be to host our very own 100in1 Day Hamilton intervention! We set up a table where kids could draw while we talk to their parents about the benefits of street trees. After 2 hours of talking to several families, we got a few requests and had many people interested in the program! Hopefully they visit the Hamilton Free Street Tree website and request their very own. To wrap up our day, we headed down Barton for a bit of door-to-door canvassing.

On Sunday (June 7), I headed to Mills Plaza on the McMaster campus for the first ever Trailhead Ontario 2015 Community Day! There were a bunch of different trail groups that came from across Hamilton, Halton, and Burlington for a two-day conference that will be taking place on Monday and Tuesday. I set up a table to inform people of the Free Street Tree Program that the City of Hamilton offers, and this impressed quite a few individuals that travelled from outside of the City, as their regions did not offer such a sweet deal. Fortunately, most of the people I talked to already had plenty of trees planted across their properties and some even planted trees in their favourite fishing spots are along the road in their home towns!

Although the turnout was mediocre at first, the plaza got busier later on in the day with most of the attention focused on the Conversation Halton booth that hosted a few very impressive birds of prey. Overall, the Community Day was definitely a success and it was refreshing to meet with so many individuals who were active in greening the environment and were pro-sustainability.

Turnout at Trailhead Ontario 2015 Community Day

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Google+

Email

Other Apps

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

2016's Street Tree Project coordinator Hannah Walters-Vida gave a report to the city of Hamilton's Public Works committee October 31, 2016, reporting on the successful outreach that garnered 62 new street trees in a section of ward three.

Over the past four summers, we have added over 200 street tree requests in neighbourhoods with higher than average mortality rates due to air pollution. The free street trees will contribute to improved air quality for generations to come.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the project in one way or another over the years.

The Street Tree Project is looking for summer volunteers to
help with door-to-door canvassing to promote green space in Hamilton! The Project
The OPIRG Street Tree Project aims to plant trees in areas
of the city with poor air quality and minimal urban canopy. The city offers
free trees to be planted on any property, but many people are unaware of this
initiative. Now in its fourth year, the Street Tree Project uses door-to-door
canvassing, events, and social media presence to encourage people to make
requests for trees to be planted on their property.
This year, we will be focusing on the Landsdale, Gibson, and
Stipley neighbourhoods of Hamilton. The project will last from mid May to early
July. Volunteer
ResponsibilitiesTraining:
all volunteers must attend a training session prior to beginning any work.Canvassing: volunteers will go door to door encouraging residents to place requests for trees on their property. Volunteers will be thoroughly trained and can expect to canvas in pair…

This year the Street Tree Project will be targeting the Gibson area! Heading out to the neighbourhood for the first time with the now experienced Street Tree Project Leader Randy Kay, we were able to assess the area more comprehensively than with Google maps. Starting from Barton St. East, we made our way Northwards up Gibson Avenue. Our first reaction of the neighbourhood was how much potential it had to become greener. Plot sizes were generally decent, with a few that might be too small to have a tree planted there,but it was clear that the street could be made much more beautiful with an overhanging tree canopy. After talking to one of the neighbours, it seemed that because of the small plot sizes, most people would be more receptive towards smaller trees. Considering that the most popular requested tree has been the Amur Maple (growing up to 5-8 meters in height), this was not very surprising.
Additionally, there were other neighbours who seemed to be interested in the idea of a…